Catholic Poetry Room stained glass

John 12:3; 20:27 -28

Shelter in your presence,
bathing your feet.
I pour the most
fragrant
whole bottle
of me; that perfume of love fills
the house of my life.

I find shelter
In your palm
when I abide
in its fissures,
broken skin,
callouses from timber;
cures that touched
chasms of fear.

Most of all,
the gory wound,
where my faults
are drowned:
mercy’s extravagance;
your heart breaking open.


Mary Lee’s poems have been published nationally and internationally, including Skylight 47CrannógOrbisThe Poet’s Quest for God (anthology); The Anglican Theological ReviewThe 2018 Poiema Series (anthology); Poems for Patience Competition (highly commended, 2019); The Linnet’s WingsThe Galway Review 4The FurrowDodging the RainPresence: A Journal of Spiritual Directors InternationalProust (Collection 2)Adam, Eve & the Riders of the Apolcalypse (anthology); A New Ulster (website); The Wild Word (website); The Galway Review (website), and Vox Galvia. Her work has been broadcast on RTE Radio 1, A Living Word, and her poems have been cited at liturgies and retreats. Her second poetry collection, Everyday Epiphanies, was published with Kelsay Press, May 2021.


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Since 2019, the Catholic Poetry Room (www.CatholicPoetry.org) has shared a new poem with readers each week. Poems range in style from formal to free verse to ekphrastics, with an honest expression of each author’s spiritual journey. Many Catholic Poetry Room adult readers are new to poetry and find the poems both accessible and enjoyable. The Catholic Poetry Room is also used by Catholic School teachers, who find the poems an excellent way to begin the day with their students, to pray, or use Catholic Poetry Room verse in their academic classes.